SocialSocial is an ongoing project by SexEd (Norene Leddy and Liz Slagus). It is a prototype for artists to work with people who actively engage with the public, but not in an art context, to bring a fresh perspective to socially engaged art. The concept: dinner, drinks, a brief presentation on the history and current examples of socially engaged art projects, and conversations about how to make this work more accessible through the language and strategies of people who do not work directly in the art world. Inspired by a conversation with the Art and Social Justice Working Group, SocialSocial’s goal is to address some of socially engaged art’s recurring questions and concerns around public(s) and audience, the ethics of credit and inclusion, and the desire to hear from voices outside of the art world. The first SocialSocial was held on November 12, 2014 and included nine participants from the fields of community activism, social work, public education, security, health care, AIDS activism, and science. Documentation and templates from the first SocialSocial are posted online, so that others can hold SocialSocials and we can continue this dialogue that is critical to the field.

The first SocialSocial was a commissioned art-based response to the first gathering of the Art and Social Justice Working Group around the conflict “Accountability: Artist, Curator, Institution, Funder.”  Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics with A Blade of Grass, this group of artists, curators, funders, and thinkers from across the city is working to provoke thinking to around artistic efforts that assume agency to enact social change.